CVS now $5k/day
 

I just hope I don't get this cashier. My signature would be a total mess to them :D.

Wow did you spend all day coming up with that?

Yes
When driving round to different cvs stores all day and listening to top 40 radio one spends lots of time coming up with such nonsense.

Doesnt every MSer?

here's another one...
 

I can fake a smile to a CVS clerk
I can force a laugh
I can do the social engineering dance and play the part
If that's what you ask
Give you all I am

I can do it
I can do it
I can do it

[Chorus]
But I'm only human
And I cry when my bank shuts me down
I'm only human
And when my computer crashes my miles world breaks down
A mean Walmart clerk's words in my head are like knives in my heart
You build me up with Cartera promos and then they fall apart
I'm only human, yeah

[Verse 2]
I can turn it on
Be a good MS machine
I can hold the weight of worlds waiting on hold with Bancorp
If that's what you need
Be your everything

I can do it
I can do it
I'll get through it

[Chorus]
But I'm only human

I have said before that I don't think MS is promenient in my area and I think it's been proven to me in the last week. At my local CVS, I have never seen a loss of VRs. When I walk up to the counter, the cashier already knows to add $500 each. I asked her the other day if they sold a lot of these. She said sometimes but not really. I have had Best Buy and Walmart cashiers question why I buy so many GCs and load to BB/MO.

But yesterday took the cake. I went to a different CVS b/c I just happened to be in the area. I walked up to the cashier with 4 VRs and said "500 on each please." She exclaimed "Wow". I asked her was she not use to seeing so many VRs and she said "not really and definitely not for $500." As she was ringing them up, she noticed I had 4 so when she said Wow she thought I only had 2.

I do wonder how big the "legitimate" market is for products like VRs. I mean, if you think about it, isn't the whole concept of a "reloadable" debit card a bit complicated for the type of people who might actually need it? Not to mention that it's not a great deal to actually use for its intended purpose.

I guess nobody has the numbers, but I would think the number of VRs sold for "non-intended purposes" (MS and whatever benefit they have for illegal activities) is a huge percentage of their business. After all, the target audience isn't loading these for $5K/month on all the BBs they've managed to accumulate.

I would imagine that it is pretty large. There are many people out there who do not have credit cards because of poor credit, being paranoid, etc., but still want to make purchases online. If you need an item from online, a $3.95 fee to load a card that requires no credit check is a pretty good deal if you have no other options.

Absolutely. I've seen the occasional comment questioning why someone would spend $3.95 to load a card if MS weren't involved. I've seen people pay $1.95 or $2.95 in ATM fees to withdraw $20. Most of us wouldn't do that, but Amex is going after a market that doesn't fit the FT profile and is really not close to their traditional market.

Sigh, people need to stop saying things like this. If they are requiring it for all pre-paid purchases over $1k, it's fine. They can require whatever they want. It's your choice as a customer whether or not you want to do business with them.

Even with that, visa/mastercard/amex doesn't care about merchants requiring ID for large purchases on CC. You will never see a complaint lodged against a business that actually goes somewhere. Sure, it's in their merchant contracts, but at the same time they respect that their customers are trying to prevent fraud, which is in everyone's interest.

So, again, why do you think visa/mc/amex care? Because I can assure you that they don't.

Oh, I'm sure there are plenty of poor people the VR folks can "take advantage" of, but remember, those folks are poor. They don't have thousands of dollars to load onto these cards, and they're certainly not giving them a very good deal that would "incentivize" such behavior.

In contrast, we're maxing out our VR purchases because we ARE getting a good deal. Bottomline, I don't think VRs can be hard to find because the poor are snapping them up like hotcakes. Indeed, I tend to go to the poorer neighborhoods to buy them because they are more likely to be in stock!

Anyone have any experience of using CC to load Serve at CVS in New Jersey (NJ)?
I went to one CVS and cashier have no idea what is serve and what i am talking about...

Thanks in advance.

As was mentioned here before, people use it to send money to their relatives in foreign countries. Since the BB doesn't have a forex fee, the cost for an ATM transaction is quite reasonable.

I sometime run into new cashiers in NYC who don't know how to do it, but somehow they figure it out. Ask for a manager- they should know

Take a look at the Serve thread. The wiki contains great information on exactly what the cashier needs to do to load it....

In other words, it tells YOU exactly how you can instruct the cashier to do it (nicely, of course) =)

Thanks. I did look at there and read the instructions. Next time i will try to find nice cashier who is ready to listen.

I wanted to know if anyone have done this in NJ at CVS with CC bec NJ is always different than all other states as you may know..lol.